Oceanographic Coastal Center To Close For Month

Educational Attraction To Be Renovated

This is the last weekend to see the old Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center.

The Hutchinson Island educational attraction will close for a month Monday. When it reopens, it will boast a new game-fish lagoon, a paved parking lot, new landscaping and underground utilities.

The work will be the first major step in the center's $5 million expansion, which center officials hope will increase the number of visitors from 50,000 a year to 125,000.

"This is a big step, absolutely," said Nancy Perry, the coastal center's marketing director. "Our real goal is to change the generational views of how we care for the environment and its inhabitants. We want to have something for everyone."

Construction has been under way at the center for months, but Perry said the temporary closure is necessary to complete the major work safely.

Next week, workers will begin reconfiguring and expanding the parking lot with 44 new spaces for cars and school buses.

Beneath the new pavement will be a drainage system that will filter and cleanse all the runoff from the center before returning it to the water table, Perry said. New native plants will beautify the new entrance, while underground sewer lines will replace the center's current septic system.

While the center is closed, concrete foundations for the new sea turtle pavilion and a starfish-shaped touch tank will be poured. Plus, ocean water from underground pipes will begin filling the 750,000-gallon game-fish lagoon, which, when the water balance is right, will be home to tarpon, redfish, trout and mullet.

Shallow areas around two islands in the lagoon were designed to attract wading birds, Perry said.

"Right after we first cleared the land, there were roseate spoonbills, wood storks, egrets and herons," she said. "It looks very natural."

Some of the fish, which will be visible from a boardwalk and gazebo planned to be constructed next month, will come from a hatchery in Port Manatee and from the intake canal at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant.

Perry said the coastal center staff will also be busy "sprucing up things," including creating new signs on the trails leading to the Indian River Lagoon to replace those blown down by last year's hurricanes.

But the work is only the first part of the expansion campaign, which has been under way for five years.

Another $1.5 million is needed to fund a Treasure Coast Fishing Center, a shark tank, a Resource Center and a two-story, 20,000-square-foot coastal exhibit hall, she added.

"We're working hard to get everything completed," Perry said. "We're really excited this is finally happening."